The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color: Capturing the Student Voice

The report combines academic knowledge and empirical data to show what factors affect young men of color to achieve successful college outcomes. Students from several dozen institutions throughout the country were interviewed to make their experiences and voices heard.

• For young men of color, curriculum is often culturally irrelevant. Engagement and persistence increase when students are encouraged to find their own voice through experimenting with expressions of identity. Tweet
• Young men of color face a trifecta of issues when it comes to accessing help: a deficit of support resources, difficulties in asking for help, and little knowledge of what resources are available. Tweet
• Many minority males are dealing with dramatically different social experiences than the broader population of students — issues rarely considered in the current educational pipeline model. Tweet
• Mothers, and women in general, play critical roles in providing emotional support and encouragement for young men of color. Tweet
• Rethinking the aid packages that minority students receive so that they include help with work and life obligations can ease the task of balancing education and shouldering the burdens of family and work. Tweet